Association of Insanitary Practices and Faecal Sludge Management with Drinking Water Quality: A Lesson Learnt from Sheohar District, Bihar

Presence of faecal coliform in drinking water is a major public health concern in many countries. It is critical to know how faecal coliforms find ways to the drinking water. The common causes are believed to be poor sanitary practices and unsafe faecal sludge management. This paper examines the presence of such causal factors in drinking water, found to be contaminated with faecal coliform, through a field survey in Sheohar district of India. Secondary data on sanitary status of the region was collected followed by collection of primary data on structure of toilets constructed and sanitary practices from households and village level institutions through a questionnaire-based survey. Ground water samples used for drinking in the surveyed villages were tested for presence of E-coli using Compartment Bag Test kit following WHO norms. It was found that even after reaching near universal coverage of toilets, there have remained many pathways to contaminate the ground water. The findings have important implications on proper implementation of sanitation and drinking water supply programmes and steps to be taken to avoid contamination of ground water with faecal coliform even after an area has been declared as open defecation free. This will also help to identify the risk factors for designing water & sanitation safety plan to ensure water quality and improving public health and nutrition.